44202


I came across this sentence, and I've been trying to figure out it's exact
meaning.

> 要は言わなきゃいいだけの話です。

First we have the 言わなきゃいい, which means "it doesn't have to be said".

It is followed by a verb + だけ construct, that is used to trivialize the verb,
thus so far we have something like "You simply don't have to talk about that".

Combining all this in the sentence rationally, I came to the conclusion that
it means the following:

> The point is, it's a topic that you simply shouldn't touch.

For some reason though, my gut feeling tells me that it is more complicated
though, one other possible meaning that I can think of:

> The point is, this should be obvious to anyone / shouldn't even be
> mentioned.

Is one of these translations correct?


CC BY-SA 3.0
2017-03-08T13:13:09.140
44201
2021-12-04T08:32:24.797
10083
question
translation
What does 言わなきゃいいだけ mean?


You are on the right track here.

> 「Phrase or Mini-Sentence + だけの話{はなし}（だ/です/である, etc.）」

should be treated as a set phrase meaning:

> "(Phrase or Mini-Sentence). **It's as simple as that**."

You might as well remember that we often place 「 **という** 」 right in front of
「だけの話」. That would be for a little emphasis on what you want to state using
this structure.

Also fairly common is the format below:

> 「(Full Sentence(s)/Explanation). （ただ）それだけの話だ。」


CC BY-SA 3.0
2017-03-08T13:30:30.003
44202
2017-03-08T13:30:30.003
44201
answer


The point is it simply doesn't need to be said.

なきゃいい/なければ/なくては いい means that if this thing is not done it is いい (OK)

example

> 嫌なら食べなきゃいい。you don't have to eat it if you don't like it


CC BY-SA 4.0
2021-12-04T08:18:17.667
91463
2021-12-04T08:32:24.797
2021-12-04T08:32:24.797
30454
48884
44201
answer